Huntsman's Copse Map

NPCs

Met in the Undead Lockaway bonfire, teaches 'Fist Pump' gesture. He tells you that he came to Drangleic with Mild-Mannered Pate, honing his blade in the dangerous land. He claims that Pate trapped him in there and since you freed him, he can hunt him down. "Pate, the man with the strange ring. Watch out for the slimy rat. And don't you believe a word he says. I'll find the common footpad, and put an end to his roguery."

Lore Notes:

Example lore note

Example lore note

Example lore note

Notes

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Huntsman's Copse Walkthrough

After meeting Licia of Lindelt in Heide's Tower of Flame and expending all of her dialogue, she will move to the contraption in the tunnel leading to Heide's Tower. You will know if she's there because the light above the door will be shining brightly. For 2000 souls she will change the path and you can now enter the Huntsman's Copse.

Upon first entering there will be a corpse with a
Rouge Water on it followed by a long cave up. At the exit to the cave, there will be an NPC named
Felkin, sitting in a chair facing the wall, he is a Hex trainer and claims you lack the skill to learn his trade. You need a minimum of 8 Intelligence and 8 Faith to access him as a merchant(When you exhaust his speech (as a sorcerer?) you will be given the Sunset staff which requires 20 faith and 20 intelligence & Hex robes). Anyways, after exiting the cave to the left will be the first bonfire. On the edge looking out towards the horizon you might see various messages saying "Try rolling" as is typical in the Souls games.

After leaving the bonfire and heading up the path, there will be a Hollow sleeping at the entrance to another cave followed by another Hollow inside who tries to attack you. After dealing with the two Hollows move through the cave quickly as Butterflies will try to spray poison mist on you (one throwing knife will kill them). Below the path you may notice a corpse with an item, ignore it for now. Near the exit there will be a torch Hollow and a sleeping Hollow.

After exiting the cave the path will split, one path has a gap with a tree that can be knocked down on the opposite side, and the other leads up to a dark building. You may want to go back to the bonfire and light a torch,inside there is a sconce that you can light. Inside, upon first entering, a Hollow Thief with two daggers will rush you, and another will shoot poison arrows from the other side. Head outside and the Thief with daggers will follow, deal with him quickly and go back in and face left. At the end of the walkway there is a door, run over to it and open the door then quickly cancel the action and roll away to dodge any incoming arrows as well as another dagger wielding Thief that breaks the door
*note - you don't have to open the door, just running up to it and dodging makes the thief break it down*. Deal with him and you can smash the boarded up windows to let some light in, go through the doorway. This leads back outside on the ledge above the staircase, on the far edge will be a club wielding Hollow and a corpse hanging of the side with a
Cracked Red Eye Orb x1. Then go down the ladder and kick down the tree, to your left is a room with the second
bonfire.

Across from the bonfire there is a stone pillar with a corpse on it that you can jump to, it has a
Pharros' Lockstone x1 and a
Token of Fidelity x1. Climbing back up the ladder will make the jump easier. Looking back toward the bonfire there is a ledge down below, drop down and you'll find yourself in a lower section of the butterfly cave. Beware, there are more butterflies and a
Great Basilisk below. At the end of the walkway is a corpse with a
Monastery Charm x1 and a
Soul of A Proud Knight. Use Throwing Knives to kill the butterflies, 1 is on a mushroom next to the corpse the other is on the left side of the walkway when you come in and then drop down using the mushrooms and kill the Basilisk (it always drops
Large Titanite Shard x3 and can be farmed). The chest at the bottom contains
Ricard's Rapier. There is a rock wall that you can open by pushing A (xbox) X (ps3), opposite to the chest, that leads to a room with a corpse with a
Large Soul of A Nameless Soldier x1 and an Iron Maiden lift that takes you up.

The lift leads back to the dark room we passed through, but on the other side instead. Deal with the two thieves, then go down the stairs to collect some loot. Be weary of the large pit in the center of the room. On the floor hanging on the edge of the pit is a corpse with a
Lifegem x1 and a
Soul of A Lost Undead x1. Then in the corner of the room is a corpse with a
Bandit's Knife x1. Then, head up the staircase, and opposite of the door you came in, is a ladder, go up. At the top, a club-wielding Thief will be waiting, let him rush at you, then kill him. A dagger wielding Thief will jump up from the ledge, deal with him and drop down. On the ledge will be a corpse with
Poison Moss x1 and a
Lifegem x1. Drop down and roll towards the door and return to the bonfire.

Heading deeper into the Copse, further down the path there will be a Torch wielding Hollow patrolling the bridge along with another hollow. To your left, before the bridge, there will be a club wielding hollow hiding behind a tree and a corpse with a
Large Soul of A Lost Undead x1 and a
Small Orange Burr x1. Cross the bridge and you'll meet your first Sickle Wielding Giant, he's not that hard to kill, just kite him across the bridge and bait his attacks and get two or three swings in, rinse and repeat. Kill the butterflies with throwing knives and continue onward There are two more giants, deal with them the same as the first, then head into the cell and on the corpse is a
Morning Star and a
Large Soul of A Nameless Soldier x1. A summon sign for Bashful Ray is next to the bodies. The third giant is guarding a corpse with a
Aromatic Ooze x1. Near the second butterfly is a corpse with a
Lifegem x1. The Forlorn will invade in this area.

Now there are two paths you can take, one leads to the Undead Purgatory, the other leads to the third bonfire:

Undead Purgatory: To the right of the first bridge is a second, where there are two Hollows and another Purgatory Guardian, deal with them quickly and on the ledge is a corpse with a Notched Whip, then follow the path where there is four more Purgatory Guardians (replaced with Red Phantom Purgatory Guardians in NG+ onward or burning Ascetic in third bonfore?) on tall pillars, two with whips, two with staffs. Deal with them one by one and head across the bridge where a red phantom with a Greatsword and shield is waiting (he only respawns in NG+ onward, drops Greatsword +3).

STRATEGY: This guy makes Havel look easy. To deal with this rather difficult phantom, first and most important is not letting him hit you, if he staggers you its game over. The best strategy is parrying and backstabbing, his swing patterns are really odd and its difficult to time it right but it shouldn't be too bad once you get it down. It should take about 4-5 before he is defeated and now you can head inside the Purgatory which hold the Executioner's Chariot boss as well as some loot.

STRATEGY 2: Run backwards across the bridge. He can't follow you all the way. Find the sweet spot and you can shoot him in the back as he constantly turns around to leave / reengage you. The fight is now trivial.

STRATEGY 3: A beautiful cheap way to kill this guy is just to the right of his entrance, at the bridge, is a ledge with an Item (Fire Seed). Jump over to this ledge and you can use your bow to shoot through the iron gate and pepper him in the face. He cannot retaliate. (courtesy of TheBunnyMage).

Third bonfire: To get there, go up the hill past the first bridge where more Hollow Thieves are waiting. Deal with them, and look over the side where the hut is and drop down into it, there are two corpses one containing Poison Moss x2 and Green Blossom x1 the other has the spell Soul Spear, a Royal Soldier guards a chest that contains 1x Sublime Bone Dust. Follow the tunnel out, and go back up the hill, and into the far hut, a Hollow Thief will drop down, kill him, and pull the lever, this lowers the bridge and now you can get across. The third bonfire is in this cell, but its locked, to get the key cross the bridge next to the pile of burning bodies, more Hollow Thieves await.

In this dark canyon with narrow ledges, its important that you take your time. Continue down and the path will split. The upper path leads to a scripted NPC invasion,
Merciless Roenna and a corpse with the
Undead Lockaway Key.
Looking off the cliff edge there will be a small ledge. On the ledge is a corpse holding
Flamberge. This is also a convenient spot to snipe the thief below. Head back down to the lower path and off to the side is a wooden bridge, this leads you to skeletons and necromancers, don't go there yet, continue down the path and there will be three more Hollow Thieves, one archer is in front of the cell and two more Hollows are inside. Also inside is a corpse with 2x
Flame Butterfly. **(NG+ only: Two sickle giants will appear at a certain point before being invaded and after the key pickup. One appears in front and another appear behind on the path. Return to the locked bonfire for now and use the key to unlock it and interact with the NPC
Creighton of Mirrah inside. He teaches the 'Fist Pump' gesture and tells you how he got locked up inside. Killing him results in him dropping his mask and Melentia will sell the rest of his set.

Next to the bonfire will be a cave (Note: This path is optional, served as a shortcut), this leads to skeletons as well as jars that emit a cursing fog, Upon entering you will see a sconce to your right as well as a corpse with a Magic
Mace and a
Titanite Shard. One of the skeletons is buried below the ground next to the jar, inactive until you get close to it, another one is further in the tunnel, carrying dual scimitars, if you attempt to kill them, they'll soon be resurrected by a dark necromantic magic. Watch out as there is a skeleton behind the jars. Destroy all jars from here on with a good ranged attack to avoid curse build up from the laughing jars. In the next area a pathway immediately to your left holds a hiding skeleton. Further on the right hand side of the room is a skeleton archer and the
Black Hollow Mage (also the necromancer who keeps reanimating the skeletons here, they have a rare chance to drop
Black Hollow Mage Set and the second best sorcery dedicated staff in game:
Lizard Staff). Kill her to stop the skeletons from respawning and carry on, another option is using
Yearn and
Force to knock the skeletons into the bottomless pit. You will come to a closed gate which you can't pass as the lever is on the opposite side. Back track to the small pathway which the skeleton was hiding in and you will arrive outside again. Cross over the wooden bridge and continue right down the path and it will lead you to the boss fog gate where you fight the Skeleton Lords. Before entering the fog, move along the right hand path near the waterfall to come to the opposite side of the cave from earlier. You will come to a room with a necromancer and skeletons on the left side. Careful, as the floor here is missing in some places. Use ranged attacks to dispatch the necromancer. Move forward and take the path to the right first. This leads to a broken bridge with a corpse holding
Combustion pyromancy spell and 3x
Titanite Shard. Double back and turn right, taking the path leading towards the sconce. At the end of this path is the lever to the closed gate as well as a corpse holding 1x
Estus Flask Shard, a Crystal Lizard and there is a summon sign for
Creighton of Mirrah. Turn around and head back out of the cave and approach the boss fog door.